1 15 1 https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/speccoll/files/original/e62a4e950c53cf75d3fab44903cf304f.pdf 799a41ec4843b6b02e8a48c6744dca19 PDF Text Text Item ID Number on 89 Author Braun, Daniel C. Corporate Author Report/Article TitlB Establishing Environmental Criteria JOIirnal/BOOk Title Archives of Environmental Health Year ™™ Month/Day September Color n Number of Images 3 DOSCriptOll NOtOS ^'v'n *-• Young filed this Item under the category "DDT/Human Toxicology and Environmental Fate" Heading: Pollution Medical Research Conference. Wednesday, April 11, 2001 Page 1189 of 1242 �lution Medical Research Conferefee Establishing j/ Environmental Qrtteria 1 Medical Perspectives , MD; reasonable Nosuggestisthatperson todayofwould pollution the environment not a serious problem, one which demands the application of all the intelligent, scientific, and technical effort we can muster—and can afford. Physicians are aware of this. Industrialists, for the most part, are aware of it. Scientists from a number of disciplines are working diligently to define the problems and to find solutions. Unfortunately, the greatest deterrent to sound progress at present comes from those who engage in unscientific exaggerations while demanding instant results. All sorts of dire predictions are being made by all sorts of people, but those most frightening with respect to health are being made by persons who are not physicians. In their importance to humanity, the possible effects of pollution on health far outweigh aspects of aesthetics or comfort. Health is the Submitted for publication Dec 6, 197% accepted M««h 19,1978. From the Industrial Health Foundation, Inc., PJUfburgh. Mr. tJurgiel it now with Byckman Edgerley Tomiinfon * Awociatew, 8t Loufe. Road before t)te Air Pollution Medical Research Conference of the American Medical A> •ocietion, Chicago, Oct a, 1972, • . |^|^ntr»a«eit« to Induitriil Health Paunda. Won, Inc., 58$1 Centre Av», ntt*b,ur0h, PA if. 0raun)i '-—-,.: iron HMlth/Vol 27, Sept 1973 realm of physicians, and so it is important for physicians to know what substances in the environment are hazardous to health, or potentially so. A major problem is that zealots are calling some situations health hazards when they are in fact merely nuisances, because this makes the sequences dire. Sometimes this is done out of ignorance of the significance of dose-response relationships. Beyond all others, physicians are aware of such relationships; they know that for every substance a certain dosage level is needed to produce an expected response. Because health is the most important concern in community contamination, and because the doctor it best able to understand the physiological response to various levels of contaminanta, the physician should play a more important role in public information about and community rosponse to pollution control. Contaminant* emitted into the atniosphere arise from maty ******** Sorn^ result from communiiy operations, such at garbage diapoaal and incineration. Agricultural burninf, fertilising, and insect-control account tor tome, and still other* have their origin in industrial proceaM* <* &• jjjwration of automobile!, trucks, Establishing Environment* CrtttftyBraun «t at t|| �buses, boats, and airplanes. We call attention to the fact that we said "contaminants" and not "pollutants," The introduction of harmful, impure, or otherwise undesirable substances into something previously untainted constitutes contamination, The result may, for practical purposes, be negligible. It is only when these substances render the atmosphere or water foul or noxious to health or life that the word "pollution" is properly applicable. This may seem to be only an exercise in semantics, but the point of emphasis is that many people have fallen into the sad practice of loose speech and fuzzy definitions in the whole area of environmental control. They cry havoc when what is really needed is merely nuisance abatement. The fact is that the far-out claims about air pollution are, at best, frightening citizens, especially parents, and, at worst, are in a fair way to leading to panic, simply because of the lack of precise understanding of the actual health effects of contaminants in the air we breathe. In a few well-publicized acute episodes of near-disastrous magnitude, serious illness and death have resulted from polluted air. Therefore, pollution in high enough concentrations can be serious. On the other hand, it is perfectly apparent that even in the urban areas of our country the life-span and general state of health continue to improve, and so the concentrations commonly found in urban areas must be less than disastrous. Again we return to dose-response relationships. High enough concentrations can be harmful to health. Lower concentrations, even though they may offend us in terms of aesthetics or comfort, can be completely harmless to health. Physicians know that the respiratory system is equipped with very efficient self-cleansing mechanisms, and can defend against and dispose of even abnormal amounts of foreign substances which are inhaled. One seldom hears or sees this fact referred to, however, in the talks or feature articles on air pollution. Physicians know that the body also has marvelous d«to«ifying mechanisms that can III Arch Environ Health/Vol 27, Sept 1973 handle low doses of a wide variety of /"Spots and gases. Sulfur dioxide has substances with no harmful effects, a in the public press as fact the public press almost unive%^ ttfe" 'jiq|St 'damaging, corrosive, and sally ignores. irritating to humans. Actually, in f/ It is well, too, to keep in mind that concentrations it can "pollution" of the air is an inherent bronchoconstriction. We part of the phenomena of nature. Volioians would not be likely to canic ash has been an important pol- lerm Such effect on airway resistance lutant, as has smoke from forest fires. as "corrosive." Careful research on humans has shown that more than Ozone in high concentrations is tem13,000/ig of SO, per cubic meter of air porarily present in the air following is needed to produce any measurable lightning storms. Many others could bronchoconstriction. This can be be listed. compared with the governmental Man, blamed and maligned as the community air quality standard of worst polluter, produces only about 80/ng of SO, per cubic meter of air. 0.5% of the total air contamination The physiological response to SO, through his inventions and activities. may be enhanced in the presence of It is true that this relatively small particulatefa, moisture, and oxidation, amount can cause serious problems because, in contrast to that from natand is also influenced by individual ural sources, those for which man is susceptibility. But it is apparent that responsible are localized and may be SO, levels in community air must concentrated. reach relatively high concentrations Thus, a power-generating plant to be deleterious to health. may emit several hundred tons of sulfur dioxide (SO,) per day, and air movement across an urban area can increase the participate loading by tenfold compared to the air of a nearby rural area. The articles which follow will deal in greater depth with specific contaminants and their effects. We wish merely to touch on a few examples that, in our judgment, indicate the areas in which physicians have much to offer and in which the medical perspective is essential. Of the millions of tons of material thrown into the atmosphere each year, carbon monoxide (CO), largely from transportation sources, is the major pollutant, constituting about 50% of the total loading by man. Its most serious effects, of course, are to be expected in persons with chronic heart and lung disease, but at low concentrations the effects may be manifested by visual impairment and slowed reaction time. To date, most studies of the effects of CO have employed short-term, high-concentration exposure. Future CO toxicology must be directed to physiological changes produced by low levels ov«r long periods of time. Other major contaminants are the oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, hydrocarbons, particulate matter, and* va-~ Hydrocarbons constitute approximately 15% of the total contamination in the ambient atmosphere. The most important, from the standpoint of being potential photochemical pollutants, ar j the double-bond olefins, substituted aromatic hydrocarbons, and aldehydes and ketones. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are universally present in the atmosphere, and much attention has been directed to some of them because of their carcinogenic potential. Thus far, experimental production of lung tumors in small animals has not been accomplished by inhalation, and the literature presents no clear-cut correlation between the effects of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon pollution and lung tumor production in man. Neitiier does present information indicate any direct health effects due to the gaseous hydrocarbons in ambient a<r, but "present information" is still inadequate to state unequivocally ihat there can be none, for instance, under extremely adverse meteorological conditions. Of the teven oxides of nitrogen known to exist, only two of toxicological importance are present in ambient air-nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO,). No data from either aninal or human studies suggest thai NO is a health hazard at Establishing Environmental Criteria/Braun et at �concentrations found in ambient air, but since it readily oxidizes to NO,, it possesses potential toxicity. The toxicology >f NO, is difficult to discuss because of the inadequacy of relevant data from human studies. An article that follows will describe the effects of NO, on schoolchildren in an urban area. The effects of oxides of nitrogen at levels of community air pollution at this time must be considered as potentially irritating Jlnd possibly related to chronic pulmonary fibrosis, but there is insufficient evidence of its qualitative relationship to them. With regard to water pollution, the problems are vastly different today from those of a few decades ago when the major concern wns waterborne bacteria responsible for cholera and typhoid fever. Development of effective filtration and chlorination techniques has virtually eliminated such epidem cs. At present, the volume of industrial and metropolitan wastes is tremendous and includes an ever-increasing number of synthetic chemical contaminants which did not even exist a dozen years ago. Most available data on the effects of chemicals in water svpplies have come from experiences in industry. However, some information has been obtained from episodes of acute illnesses v^iich result from the presence of some uncommon natural constituents in crinking water, or accidental contamination from spillage or jeepage of sc me chemical. More than 500 new chemicals are developed each year, and many of these fir.d their way into our waterways. Sxtch chemicals as nitrates and nitrites, arsenic and selenium, mercury, organic .carcinogens, and tracemetal antagonists present real challenges to w ater pollution central. Scientific data on thii relative importance of heavy metil toxicity are scarce. The Food and Drug Administration admits to little knowledge regarding levels of toxicity for metals in foods. Many chemical processes, for instance, use mercury, which ultimately escapes into waste water and tends to settle in the sediment of lakes and rivers. Small or- ganisms not only ingest the metal, they transform it into a more toxic * form. Bottom-feeding fish eat the small organisms and are in turn eaten by larger game fish. Mercury becomes increasingly concentrated with each successive step. Although mercury probably has been present in high concentrations in fish for many years, and possibly has no effect on persons eating the fish, it is nevertheless a cumulative poison. It exists in food fishes as methyl mercury, which is a highly toxic substance that causes neurological damage, produces chromosomal aberrations, and has teratogenic effects. Stopping the discharge of mercury into our waterways is only one aspect of the problem; of greater concern is what to do with the mercury already lying on the river bottoms. Recent studies raise the question as to whether drinking water which contains minute amounts of carcinogenic pollutants may, over many years, contribute directly or indirectly to cancer in man. Efforts to link organics in drinking water to cancer prevalence have so far been unsuccessful. Of major consequence with regard to soil pollution are the pebiicides. The dilemma of pesticides lies in the fact that while they do much good, they threaten a great deal of harm. They aid in increasing food and fiber production through protection from insects, rodents, and weeds, but by their poisonous nature they may also endanger human life by long-term, low-level effects. Because of recent adverse publicity, the public seems to believe that pesticides have been spread with reckless abandon all over the landscape, contaminating all food and fiber crops and polluting the whole environment beyond reclamation. As a matter of fact, it is impossible to find anything in current popular literature that puta pesticides in a favorable light. If it can be shown that a pesticide has accumulated in animal tissue, there is no end to the allegations made against it For the last decade the dangers of DDT, its buildup in the environment as well as in human tissues, have been a public health issue in this country. It WM almost completely banned from use in the United State* by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this year. However, after seven months of hearings by the EPA during which a stream of scientific witnesses testified, the hearing examiner found that there was no conclusive evidence against DDT. In fact, some of the evidence was clearly questionable. The World Health Organization has recently sought to persuade governments to recognize the fact that although DDT may have certain hazards, they should not be allowed to obscure its immense advantages. The World Health Organization feels that, in spite of the adverse publicity, there is no present justification for abandoning this valuable weapon in the fight against disease. Physicians, especially those concerned with public health, are becoming more aware of the relationship of man's well-being to his environment It is imperative that they maintain a scientific and professional approach, and calmly appraise all the facts relating to health, disease, and ecology, Scientific research is a slow, methodical process, and no amount of hyste ria, government funding, or legisla tion will hasten resolution of the problems of physiological reactions. This article has merely referred U some of the aspects of the various kinds of pollution, meanwhile urging physicians to become involved, albeit on a sound and professional basis While we are all familiar with th< acute episodes of serious pollution such as occurred in Donora, Pa, am the Meuse Valley-and the disastei at Minamata Bay, Japan, in whid more than 100 died of mercury poi soning- we, as physicians must lean how to evaluate realistically the long term effects of these pollutants at \o\ levels. With this background, th medical profession can meet what w consider to be its obligation to help I development of proper criteria ft environmental controls, and in mail taining the medical perspective, � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Alvin L. Young Collection on Agent Orange Description An account of the resource <p style="margin-top: -1em; line-height: 1.2em;">The Alvin L. Young Collection on Agent Orange comprises 120 linear feet and spans the late 1800s to 2005; however, the bulk of the coverage is from the 1960s to the 1980s and there are many undated items. The collection was donated to Special Collections of the National Agricultural Library in 1985 by Dr. Alvin L. Young (1942- ). Dr. Young developed the collection as he conducted extensive research on the military defoliant Agent Orange. The collection is in good condition and includes letters, memoranda, books, reports, press releases, journal and newspaper clippings, field logs and notebooks, newsletters, maps, booklets and pamphlets, photographs, memorabilia, and audiotapes of an interview with Dr. Young.</p> <p>For more about this collection, <a href="/exhibits/speccoll/exhibits/show/alvin-l--young-collection-on-a">view the Agent Orange Exhibit.</a></p> Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Box The box containing the original item. 047 Folder The folder containing the original item. 1189 Series The series number of the original item. Series III Subseries I Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Braun, Daniel C. John A. Jurgiel Paul Gross Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Archives of Environmental Health Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973-09-01 Title A name given to the resource Establishing Environmental Criteria Subject The topic of the resource ecological impact health effects pesticide toxicology risk assessment ao_seriesIII